Luhamaa is a small area in

Setomaa Parish Setomaa Parish () is a rural municipality of Estonia, in Võru County. It has a population of 2,849 (as of 1 January 2022) and an area of 463.1 km2. Demographics Population in the municipality: * 2000: 4,206 * 2011: 2,990 * 2022: 2,849 ...

Võru County Võru County ( or ''Võrumaa''; ) is a county in southern Estonia. It is bordered by Valga and Põlva counties, Latvia's Alūksne and Ape municipalities, and Russia's Pskov Oblast (making it the only Estonian county to border two countries) ...

in southeastern

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, on the Russian border. The Luhamaa border crossing is located on the

European route E77 European route E 77 is a part of the International E-road network, inter-European road system. This Class A intermediate north–south route is long and it connects the Baltic Sea with the central part of the continent. History In the ...

(road from

Pskov Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=Ru-Псков.oga, p=psˈkof; see also Names of Pskov in different languages, names in other languages) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov O ...

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

). The official Luhamaa village was abolished in 1997 by dividing the lands between Hindsa, Määsi and Pruntova villages. The border crossing is officially located on the territory of Lütä village. On 5 September 2014 Eston Kohver, an Estonian counterintelligence officer, was kidnapped at gunpoint from the border checkpoint, while he was in the process of interdicting a crossborder crime. The abductors had jammed communications and used smoke grenades. The abducted officer was taken to Russia. Later on the same day the Russian

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation �СБ, ФСБ России (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterin ...

(FSB) claimed the responsibility for the abduction of the officer. The FSB, however, maintains that he was taken from within Russian territory.

References

Estonia–Russia border crossings Setomaa Parish Former villages in Estonia {{Võru-geo-stub